News Windows 10 to be a free upgrade

A free upgrade to what is essentially all PC users? What's the catch? How are they going to make their money?

 

Given the references to Windows as a service I'm guessing they'll be a subscription fee at some point.

 

Haven't MS said they don't intend Windows to be a loss leader? And having looked at the MS Windows 10 page it refers to a free upgrade for qualifying windows 7, windows 8.1 and windows phone 8.1 devices. That doesn't seem to be any upgrade for all users...

Edit: why would an upgrade for tablets like the Linx require a bios or firmware upgrade?

 

From here

and

 

Stage 1, don't tank the PC market in the first twelve months.
Stage 2, pray to the Silver Dollar that OE buyers and aftermarket purchasers don't start demanding Windows 7 over all else again.
Stage 3, OE sales (the real money).
Stage 4, once the new OS has a large install base and (hopefully) reasonable popularity, start charging for it after market.

I'm sure Microsoft will start shoe-horning subscriptions for everything imaginable, I would be very surprised if cross platform play from the PC end worked without a XBL Gold subscription for example. Then there's Office, Media player, Outlook, Security...

The most important thing is that they avoid that wave of this is horrible I'm not buying it that afflicted Win 8.

 

also it could end up saving them money in the long run
i wonder how much money it cost to keep Windows XP supported for so long
if they can jump everyone onto the same OS it keeps their running costs down as they only have to support a single software point compared to several, i also believe this is the reason MS tried to have a 'one OS for all devices' idea

That said, im still going to wait until we see the small print before making any jumps

 

Hope my MSDNAA copy of Win7 Pro is eligible for the free upgrade,

 

Perhaps they're disregarding people like us in their profit predictions, and looking more towards OEMs. We aren't average computer users, we don't buy a whole new computer from the shop when we want an upgrade. It could be that OEMs will continue to need to buy a licence, and I would assume that what we would spend on an OS licence is pretty small. They could be banking on the good will they'd get releasing a free upgrade.

 

What does "supported lifetime of the device" means, specially for a laptop?
How about those that bought, for example, a Windows 7 Ultimate Retail box. Will they still have the perks from a retail license?
Apparently some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1, according to the blog post comments.

 

My best guess is that you couldn't transfer the license to a new/different PC... until they release the small pint or say for definite what they mean it's just a guess...

 

Well, if that's the case, I won't upgrade.

 

Does that mean if I need to reinstall the OS at some point, after the 1 year period, I will have to pay for a new license? :/

 

Gareth's login looks to have been compromised!

 

That's based on how OEM licenses work [which is what most of the licenses upgraded will be]... 'retail' licenses may be the same as now. As i said, until they roll out the fine print we'll not no for sure...

For most people it'll be an non-issue as when the 'device' dies, they'll buy a new one which will have its own license...

If it's a reinstall no [though you may have to jump through the activation hoops], if it's fresh install on a new PC maybe [see above], though it's pretty easy to get round that hurdle currently [though not 100% guaranteed to work] by phoning MS up

Though the only reason you'd need to reinstall from scratch is if you were changing the HDD/SDD which had windows on it... 'refresh' and the built-in 'wipe everything and reinstall' options would suffice for most people and situations...

 

32 or 64 bit? I know the bios is 32 bit so won't let you run a 64 bit boot loader or OS; however, I've had no problem installing a 32 bit version of Windows 8.1 Pro and I know people have installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

 

I can't help but feel that some people are over estimating the numbers who will upgrade at all. I know the upgrade number is huge but there are far more who will just continue to stick with whatever is already on their current computer. I know plenty of people who still run 7, not because they don't like 8, in fact most of them have never tried it and know very little about it apart from what they see on a poster. Windows 8.1 was a free upgrade for those with 8 and yet many ignored that too... just like so many people who ignore Windows Updates in general.
I also feel that newer versions of Windows face a slower uptake than previously because many people hang on to their computers (laptops/PCs) for longer before updating to newer ones and so end up staying for longer with what was originally installed on their current machine, as mentioned above.
I can't understand the negativity going around either. MS are giving away their top line OS for free for you to use and you want to complain because you might have to reinstall the OS? Or if you reinstall after the first year you might have to pay for it? So what? I can't think of anything else you can have and use for a full year and potentially a lot longer on a try before you buy basis. I just hope that the free version is at least complete enough to include Media Player, Media Centre and a few other bits... if these are purchase only additions then that is a whole different matter but I can't see them doing that. At least not in the first year as that would surely cause a lot of people to not upgrade once again which is totally against what their hopes are.